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View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoBelal Khaled | The New York TimesTop, artwork created by Belal Khaled, a photojournalist and painter, who said he saw images in the smoke from Israeli airstrikes around his southern Gaza town, below.

By Jodi Rudoren &Fares AkramTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Sunday August 17, 2014 9:47 AM

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — The images of so many houses destroyed, so many bomb blasts, even so
many bodies wrapped in burial shrouds can begin to blur together, becoming indistinguishable.

But Belal Khaled, a young photojournalist and painter in this southern Gaza town, saw symbols
and stories in the smoke all around him.

First, in a black cloud staining the bright blue sky above a beach, he saw hints of a prominent
nose, thick mustache and wild hair, “like an old man contemplating the situation of Gaza,” Khaled
said.

Then, in a friend’s photograph of a taller, thinner plume, he saw a fist with the index finger
extended, a gesture Muslims make when saying, “No God but Allah.” Using Photoshop, Khaled added
lines to emphasize these hidden icons and uploaded the artwork to Facebook, where it was “liked”
thousands of times.

“Artists may see things others can’t see,” said Khaled, 23, who works for a Turkish news agency.
“Even at the very tense times and very hard moments, we still draw.”

In Gaza, the fierce fighting that began on July 8 unleashed a barrage of creativity, fueled by
social-media networks.

At least a half-dozen artists, some far from Gaza, have circulated drawings like Khaled’s,
overlaid onto pictures of the explosions from Israeli bombs. Others posted more-straightforward
paintings of death, destruction, rockets and warplanes, stark graphic designs of strident slogans,
digital manipulations and political cartoons.